


Unconventional Realities

by Ecrivaisseur



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-30
Updated: 2016-06-23
Packaged: 2018-06-05 08:09:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6696811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ecrivaisseur/pseuds/Ecrivaisseur
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Romantic Evil Charming. A flaw in the Evil Queen's dark curse causes Prince Charming to wake up from his comatose state a few years after she's cast the curse, and eventually Regina comes to find she's fallen in love with him. They marry, adopt a son named Henry, and lead what seems to be a perfect, happy life until the Savior comes to Storybrooke, breaks the curse and everyone's memories are restored. Both David and Regina are forced to watch their realities come crashing down as they try and deal with both the past actions that haunt them and the future that lies ahead of them, something that's made even more challenging by the arrival of the Evil Queen's mother, Cora.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Watching The World Fall

Chapter One

Watching The World Fall

**Past**

_He interlaces the fingers of his hand with hers, wrapping his other arm around her waist and pulling her in closely towards him. Their bodies squished together, they can feel the warmth of the other even through the barrier of clothes. He stares deeply into her beautiful eyes as she blinks up at him. “I love you,” he whispers into her ear, even though they’re alone in the kitchen of their great house. Henry's at school, so they're the only ones there._

_She smiles that beautiful grin of lush lips and sparkling-white teeth that makes him melt every time. “I love you, too. Almost as much as I love our son,” she teases him playfully._

_“Of course. I love you almost as much as I love Henry.” Regina lays her head down softly on his shoulder and closes her eyes as he rests his chin atop of her, the tips of his fingers gently trailing up and down her back soothingly. “This is it,” he finally concludes._

_“What is it?” she asks._

_“This," he repeats. "This life. . . my life. I have everything I could ever want: I’m married to my true-love, I have the perfect son, I have a job I love, I live a beautiful house in a town that I love. I have it all. A perfect life.”_

_She leans her head back off of his shoulder and looks at him lovingly. She offers him her sweet smile again, before meeting their lips together in a kiss._

* * *

**Present**

David Nolan blinks and sucks in a sharp breath that bites at his lungs. The Enchanted Forest, Snow White, his kingdom, the shepherd, the farm, the wars, the Evil Queen’s curse, _Emma_. . . . he remembers _everything_. Everything that, for the past 28 years, he’d forgotten had existed; everything that, only a few days before, he would’ve thought were nothing more than the make-believe fairytale stories of a very creative kid.

The life that had been replaced in his mind by a new life. A new existence that had been given to him by a curse.

 _The curse. . ._ it’s been lifted, and he remembers it all.

He shudders as, at the same time, he recalls the past 28 years of his life as memories of those years flash through his mind: everything from his coma, marrying the mayor, owning the pet store, adopting their son. . . to the soccer games on the weekends, date nights on Thursdays, teacher's meetings and late nights at town hall with his wife. None of it was real, was it? It was a lie. At one time, he’d been so sure he had found true happiness, true love, and now it was all crashing down around him like a deck of cards.

His life with her. . . _Regina_. . .

“The Evil Queen,” he whispers to himself, the idea being so foreign to him. The words feel unreal coming from his lips. Was _any_ of it real? Was the love real?

He looks around and finds himself standing in the middle of the street, the people all around him looking just as confused as he presumes he did a few moments ago. He looks at the puzzled expressions painted over their faces; earlier that day, he would’ve recognized them as fellow residents of the quaint town in Maine that they all called home, Storybrooke. Some of them he knew well as friends, neighbors and coworkers. Others he had just seen around town.

Now, however, he sees who they really are, or _were_ rather: the people of the Enchanted Forest. Some of them were even members of his very own court, while several he doesn't know. All brought together by a curse.

David turns and passes all of them, his speed gradually increasing as he runs towards his truck, which is parked right where he left it. He’d been at a stop light when that foggy, purple smoke had taken over Storybrooke, and it was there that it still remained, the driver's door still flung open from when he'd fled onto the street. He closes it quickly and starts it back up again with urgency. 

He needed to find _her_. His wife. He needed answers.

* * *

Regina Mills’s dark brown eyes gaze out over her crisp, velvet front lawn from in between the white curtains of her living room window. The countenance depicted across her beautiful face is a somber one. Her arms are crossed, and her eyes are filled with a agonizing sadness.

Not ten minutes ago, her dark curse had been broken. Emma Swan, the Savior, had finally fulfilled the prophecy and freed everyone Regina had put under a curse for 28 years. It felt like it had been ages since that day, the day she had cast the curse, but that didn't matter now. Now they would all remember who they were, and what she’d done. The world she had created, the life she had carefully and meticulously designed for herself, was now shattered.

 _It was all over_.

But none of that is what was saddening her at that moment. It was the two people she’d loved most who were at the forefront of her mind. The two people who’d she’d lied to for 28 years. The two people she’d betrayed. The two people who’d she’d hurt most.

The two people who, 28 years ago, she would’ve never thought she would have to love: her son and her husband. Henry and David.

They were the most important things to her in her life, and with the curse now broken, she realizes she had effectively lost them both. They'd never forgive her for this.

Her eyes drift downwards towards a framed picture of the three of them that rests on a table in front of her, underneath the window. She picks it up and looks at the faces smiling up at her. They were never apart of the plan. . . _this_ was never apart of the plan. Take Snow White’s happiness away from her forever, that had been the goal of her curse. That had been the purpose for all of this. Adopting a son and finding a husband had not.

Oddly enough, it was the two things she hadn’t planned on having that she was now convinced she would never be able to live without.

She brushes a finger lovingly over their cheeks and smiles down at them, but the smooth glass of the picture is a poor substitute to the warmness of their actual cheeks. Regina sets the picture back down and looks once more at the lawn.

She knows they’re coming for her. The residents of Storybrooke, the people of the Enchanted Forest who she’d trapped in this land for over two decades; she knew they would be coming for her. They were probably only a few miles away from her house at that very moment, marching towards her with a wrath and fury that had been secretly building up inside of them all these years without any of them knowing it.

Regina could’ve ran. She could’ve escaped to her vault, or some other hidden retreat in town where she’d be safe until she could figure out how to regain her magic. But she doesn’t. She won’t, for running means that she has something to preserve. To protect.

And she’s already lost the only two things she cares about.

She can hear the backdoor unlock and someone’s footsteps enter into the kitchen. Regina turns towards the door that leads into the kitchen. _They’re sooner than I thought_ , she thinks to herself as she walks towards the room.  _Might as well face them now._

Before she reaches the door, however, it opens and she’s surprised to see, instead of an angry mob, her husband standing in the doorway.

“David,” she whispers with surprise and wide-eyes, before adding, “I’m so sorry for everything.”

“Save it, Regina. We don’t have much time. I passed by a mob led by Dr. Whale on my way here. It’s headed for you, and they’ll be here any moment.”

“What are you doing here, then? I can’t imagine you want to see me now. Why not leave to the wolves for what I've done to you?”

“I'm here to get you out of here before they show up. We need to go, now.”

"Why? Why not leave me to the wolves for what I've done to you and everyone else?" 

"Because you're still my wife and I'm not going to let that happen." Regina knows her husband, and she is well acquainted with his determination. He won’t budge.

She nods. “Alright.”

Leaving behind everything, she follows him through the kitchen and to the back of the house, where his truck is parked outside their garage. It's still running, ready for their escape.

“Where are we going? They’ll find me eventually.”

“Maybe, but not today. We’re going somewhere safe.”


	2. A Little Bit of Hope

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for such a long time getting this chapter out. I can promise you it won't take nearly this long in the future.

Chapter Two

A Little Bit Of Hope

 _She must've kissed him_ , Regina thinks to herself as she gazes out the window of her husband's truck, much like she did only a few minutes earlier in the living room of her home.  _Emma Swan must've kissed Henry. That's what undid her curse: True Love's Kiss_. Henry had been sick for the past few days with an illness that the incompetent Doctor Whale hadn't been able to determine. It hadn't been serious, but it had been recommended that the little boy remain at the hospital, and Regina and David both had been right at his side the whole time. . .

. . . Until that morning, when Regina had gone home to take a shower and change clothes and David had gone to close down the pet store for the week.  _Things must've taken a turn for the worst and that's when she kissed him_ , Regina concludes to herself. A kiss of true love in only the most direst situation. It was the only thing that would've been strong enough to break her curse. 

Regina looks on sadly just thinking about what her son must think of her now. 

David's truck rolls along the streets of Storybrooke, taking out-of-the-way roads and streets so as to not be noticed. With the dark curse broken and everyone's memories restored, they'll all be trying to find her. He knows that letting that happen, at least for right now, won't end well for his wife and, despite his growing memory of all the terrible things she's done to him and his family, he's not ready to abandon his wife and the mother of his child to the blood-thirst mob that hunts her. 

"Henry?" Regina turns and looks at her husband. "Will he be safe?" 

He nods. "He's with Emma. He'll be safe." 

She doesn't bother to ask when, of if, she'll be able to him again. It's too soon. They'd never let her see him so soon. She may have changed every diaper, attended to every fever, endured every tantrum, gone to every soccer game and teacher's meeting, but now, in their eyes, she'd lost every right to call him her son. She'd lost every right, in their eyes, to be his _mother._

"Where are we going?" she asks, "my vault?" 

"No." 

"Then where? There's no where else to go." 

"Do you remember that cabin we talked about renting for our anniversary next month?" David turns to look at her.

" _You_ talked about it. I preferred something less. . . woodsy," she smiles at him, he laughs, and for a brief second they're both taken back to their life before this, the life they were leading that very morning. The coldness starting to grow between them fades as they both think about their anniversary. . .

Before it vanishes almost as quickly as it arrives, and they're pulled back into the reality of their situation. The icy air between them returns like a wall. "I rented it for this weekend - I was going to surprise you - but got the keys yesterday. It's secluded. You should be safe there." 

"How long?" 

“I don’t know, Regina. You cursed an entire realm for 28 years, including many of the people that I love. People aren’t exactly happy with you at the moment. They're mad and justifiably so.”

"You're right. What I did was terrible. . . horrific. I'm not sure I'll even be able to forgive myself," she nods. "I can understand if  _you_ _'ll_ never be able to forgive me." 

He doesn't reply. Their car pulls up to a small, rustic cabin nestled in between of a cluster of leafless tress that aren't visible from the road. David parks the car and unlocks the front door of the building. The three rooms that make up the cabin are dark, but Regina finds them cozy and charming. "You should have the basics you'll need to survive here for a few days until it's safe to return: food, a toothbrush, clothes." 

"David, we should talk-"

"I know, but not now." He sets the keys down on a small table near the door and starts walking back to his car.

“You’re not staying here with me?” She doesn't know why she thought he would. He has a family to reunite with. A family not given to him through a curse.

“I’m not ready yet, Regina. Besides, Storybrooke will be chaotic now that the curse has been broken: missing people, confusion, panic. Someone will need to step up and keep things in order.”

“Always a hero,” she smiles fondly at him, though he doesn’t reply. Instead he turns away from her and hesitantly walks back to his car. A moment later his engine rumbles, and she looks on sadly as she watches him drive away, disappearing within the woodland of tree branches. It's only after a few minutes that she finally proceeds back inside the small house, her pace slow and her thoughts occupied.

Regina Mills, the Evil Queen had prepared for this day; she’d envisioned how it would turn out several times over the past two decades, many times in the form of her most terrifying nightmares, with each outcome ending the same, exact way: in her defeat. And she realizes that now, as that very thing she's dread for so long is finally happening to her, she will, in fact, be defeated. It saddens her to think about it, but, despite the depressed expression etched onto her face, she can't deny the small glimmer of hope barely beaming deep inside of her.

A hope that, maybe, just maybe, she hadn’t lost everything. . .

David, her husband, had come back for her. To save her from an angry mob that he very well could’ve let kill her. After the curse broke and everyone’s memories were restored, Regina was convinced that her husband. . . Prince Charming. . . would’ve wanted nothing more to do with her. Would’ve been so disgusted that he had married the sworn enemy of his True Love - the very woman who had tried to make his family’s life a living hell - that he would’ve had her locked away in a dungeon for eternity, going on about his life with Henry, Emma and Snow, and never looking back on his life with her with the exception of nightmares he’d hastily want to forget.

But that hadn’t been the case. He’d come back for _her_ , saved _her_ , and brought _her_ to refuge.

So, yes, maybe there was some hope for her. Maybe some hope for her family.

Darkness begins to fall outside, as the day gradually turns into night. Regina felt like any energy she had started out the day with had been sucked away with her curse, so she crawls up under the cool covers of the large, cold bed at the edge of the room, not even bothering to take off her clothes. She's too worn out to care if she wrinkles her suit. 

It'll be the first time she's slept alone in a very long time. Too long to remember. 

After a few seconds, she's able to fall, unafraid of the nightmares that await her in sleep because of that small, sliver of hope still beating inside of her.

It’s only then that she remembers just how powerful hope can be.

* * *

The Mayor is up and about in the early hours of the morning, just like she always is. As the Evil Queen, she’d been known to sleep in for hours upon hours into the day, but that had changed when she’d come to Storybrooke. Whether it was the familiar nightmares haunting her in sleep or the knowledge of the next day's mayoral duties that prevented her from going back to sleep, Regina was usually always the first one up in the morning. 

This morning it is because of the nightmares, and she prefers to curl up in a chair next to the window in the darkness of the early morning than to return to those vicious, vivid nightmares. It gives her plenty of time to think about. . . everything, the silence encouraging her on. Most importantly she thinks about the future. 

Regina doesn't want to sit, alone, here in this cabin forever. If she does, she'll never be anything more to them, the people of Storybrooke, than the Evil Queen who casted a curse over all of them. And, while she still may have fragments of that woman inside of her, fragments of the darkness, she can be so much more than just that. Over the years with David and Henry she became the woman that she wanted to be. The mother, the wife, _the person_ she wanted to be. 

And she wants everyone else to see that person, too. Not just the Evil Queen, but Regina, and their minds will never be changed if she merely waits for them to. _She_ has to change their minds.

She finally decides what she has to do. It's a few hours later that she gets up from her chair, walks to the nightstand and picks up the phone. She dials the number and presses it to her ear. 

"Hello, Ms. Swan. It's Regina."

"Regina? I'm surprised, I. . . w-where are you? You must know the whole town's looking for you."

"I know, and that's why I'm calling you. I'd like to turn myself in." 


	3. Those Eyes of Hers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The first chunk of this chapter is a flashback, which is indicated by the italics.

Chapter Three

Those Eyes of Hers

**Past**

_Her eyes, the dark, chocolate-colored gemstones that they were, are perhaps what he finds most captivating about her. Her silky black hair, her beautiful face and body, her clear intelligence. . . they were all exceptionally attractive, but, as David gazes into those two brown jewels resting on either side of her nose, he can’t help but find himself completely pulled in by their allure._

_“David?” Her eyes blink and David’s brought out of his haze to find the woman seated across from him staring directly at him. “You’re the one who asked me to out to dinner at this expensive restaurant. Are you going to at least talk to me once this evening?”_

_He gulps. “Sorry. It’s just,” she tilts her head inquisitively as he speaks. “You have the most enchanting eyes.”_

_She smiles and laughs. “Well, thank you.”_

_“You really do. It’s almost as if I’m under a curse just looking at them,” he finds himself continued to be captivated as the grin on her face grows wider, her lips accentuated by the candlelight of the table. She laughs again. “But I’m sure you get paid such compliments all the time.”_

_“You’d be surprised. Many people think of me more as an evil queen,” she looks down sadly. “Most people, actually. In time, I’m sure you will, too. You just haven't known me long enough.” She takes a sip from her glass, genuinely sad at the reality of her words. “I might as well enjoy this while it lasts- ”_

_“No, I don’t believe that,” David shakes his head and reaches his hand out across the table to meet her own. They may have just met only a few days ago, but she doesn’t resist the tender grip he gives to her fingers, as if they were old, intimate friends. His hand is warm, reassuring and surprisingly comforting to her, a stark contrast to the icy, lifeless one she had held many a time the past three months, when he’d been in his coma, at the hospital. “You saved me. You found me on the side of the road, took me into your car, brought me to a hospital and then proceeded to visit me several times each week for the past three months I was unconscious. And I know because the nurse told me. You saved my life. An evil queen wouldn’t have done that. A savior would've.”_

_"It was amazing that you recovered as quickly as you did after you'd woken up," she changes the subject, attempts to brush off his earlier words. The irony of his words bites her sharply. "No memory loss, brain damage or physical injuries. It was a miracle."_

_"A miracle made possible by you, madam mayor."_

_"You're having dinner with me. Please, call me Regina."_

_"Alright. A miracle thanks to you, Regina."_

_As the words depart from his lips, she's instantly brought back to the Enchanted Forest, to the many times he'd said her name in disgust or anger, and a silence makes itself at home between them. Regina nudges the food on her plate with the edge of her fork. This is a new land, a clean slate, she tells herself. It's a fresh start for her to make something new. For her to be different than the Evil Queen. For her to be better._

_“I forgot my phone.”_

_“I’m sorry?” David says, swallowing a bite of his steak. He looks up at her._

_“My phone. I’d forgotten it at the office and I didn’t realize it till I was on my way home. I turned around to go back and get it, and that’s when I found you, buried in the snow, unconscious. It was mere luck that I found you.”_

_“It wasn’t luck, it was fate. And you still saved me even if it was by accident,” he smiles over a her. “You’re not going to convince me otherwise. You're a savior, Regina, so stop it. Besides, you’re too pretty to be an evil queen.” He take a sip of his drink, butterflies erupting inside of him as the woman seated across from him shoots him another one of beautiful smiles._

_"Well, I'm glad I did. Otherwise I wouldn't be having dinner with a very handsome man like I am now."_

_"Indeed," he nods and smiles warmly at her._

* * *

_"Well, this is it," Regina declares as she steps up to her front door. Unlocking it and pushing it open, she turns and faces David, who stands at the edge of the porch, his hands in his pockets, protected against the New England cold. "Thank you for a lovely evening," she says. In the background she can hear the running engine of his car, "and for driving me."_

_"You're welcome, I had a good time."_

_"Me, too," she takes a step away from the door and closer to him. "We should do it again."_

_"We should."_

_He turns to leave, but she reaches out suddenly and gently pulls him back, their lips meeting as his face circles back to her. They share a kiss, a passionate kiss that's surprising to both of them. After a few moments like that, their lips discovering each other's, they both slowly fade apart. She turns to go back inside. He turns and begins to walk to his car._

_"David?" she says._

_"Yes?" He looks back at her._

_"Thank you."_

_"You already- "_

_"For what you said back there, at dinner. You may be one of the only people in this town who doesn't see me as a villain."_

_He smiles. "I believe in you, Regina."_

_"See you later?"_

_"See you later." With that he turns to walk back to his car, and all the while he can't help but eagerly await the next time he'll see those beautiful eyes of hers._

* * *

  **Present**

Those same chocolate-colored eyes meet David's bright blue ones as he stares, in awe, across the street, watching as his wife steps out of a police car parked in front of the sheriff's station, with Emma escorting her inside. Without even realizing it, the bag of groceries David carries slips from his grasp and collides onto the pavement. Not even bothering to look, David runs across the street and follows them into the building.

"What's going on? Regina what are you-?" he asks walking into the room, just as Emma is closing the door to Regina's cell.

"David-" Emma says, a look of surprise painting her face.

"I turned myself in," Regina speaks up. "I won't just sit and hide, David. I did terrible, terrible things to the people in this town. Evil things, and I'm ready to atone for what I've done. I can't do that if I'm hiding out in some cabin. I'm doing this for you and for Henry. I'm ready."


End file.
